


variations on a death scene

by skuls



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fix-It, M/M, Temporary Character Death, in which i take canon and stick it in a blender, mag 193, the major character death is in reference to jonah, written as a response to 193 but not compliant with it at all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29229576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skuls/pseuds/skuls
Summary: Or: Eight times Jonah Magnus was killed, and everything was fixed.
Relationships: Basira Hussain & Melanie King, Georgie Barker & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Georgie Barker/Melanie King, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist & Tim Stoker, Jonathan Sims | The Archivist/Martin Blackwood, Martin Blackwood & Tim Stoker
Comments: 14
Kudos: 61





	variations on a death scene

**Author's Note:**

> yeah. soooo. i really enjoyed 193 and its defiance of expectations. but i am also really bummed we're not gonna get a huge cathartic confrontation with jonah that ends in him dead. so i wrote 8 versions of that, just so i could get that out in the world. inspired by my mental deliberations on who should get to kill jonah and the scenarios that came out of that!!
> 
> these are aus that diverge in several places, including every season but 2, but post apocalyptic jonah is handled wildly different. let's assume everything up to the reveal scene in 192 is canon in those scenarios. this fic is like 80% wish fulfillment, honestly. i just wanted to write everyone getting revenge on jonah. a certain amount of suspension of belief, or ignoring of canon events, might be required. 
> 
> content warnings include: depictions of violence/murder (in a way that i don't think is overly graphic but it is there), canon-typical daisy stuff (limited to scenario 2), canon-typical tim suicidal ideation (limited to scenario 4), and jonah magnus's usual brand of mindfuckery. also, as i said in the tags, jonah is the major character death warning, but there is some temporary character death here outside of canon typical stuff. everyone is ok at the end of these scenarios, though. this fic is all about killing the villain and moving on with your life.

**1\. sasha**

Sasha doesn't go to Artifact Storage. She nearly gets cut off by the worms but she keeps going, follows Elias to the fire suppression system, thinking only of making sure that Tim and Jon and Martin are all right. Her heart is pounding with the frantic need to press the button, see the system activated and go down to make sure they're all right, but she doesn't get there. She's stopped by the sight of Elias, standing still by the button, his eyes glazed over and his hand hanging firmly at his side. 

Sasha explodes a little bit. "What the hell are you _doing?_ " she snarls, storming up and grabbing Elias by the shoulder, not caring at the moment that he's her boss. 

Elias blinks a few times until the fog clears from his eyes, and then he looks coolly at Sasha. "Sasha. I thought you'd taken refuge somewhere else."

"What are you _waiting_ for? They're in trouble down there!" Sasha snaps, motioning pointedly at the button. 

"Sasha, I've… been reconsidering. I'm not sure it's worth the risk of what the CO2 will do to them…" Elias starts. 

"What are you _talking_ about?" Sasha's nearly shouting now, fury building up in her chest, thinking about the worms and Jon and Martin and Tim, and Timothy Hodge, eaten through with worms in that cemetery. "We decided it was worth the risk _not ten minutes ago_ —they're being _attacked_ down there! You said it would be a mercy, i-if it was the CO2 instead of the worms…"

"I've changed my mind," Elias says, coldly, his eyes hard now. "And I'll thank you not to question my decision making." 

Sasha's vision goes red for a minute, driven by the adrenaline of the day—she says, "Fuck this," and her hand shoots out towards the button. 

Elias grabs her wrist before she can push it, his grip steel around it, and his eyes are staring straight through her. And suddenly, Sasha is in the cemetery, a dead man at her feet and Michael's long, sharp finger in her shoulder, and she's hit with sudden nausea, she feels like she is going to throw up. She tries to yank away but Elias won't let go; his eyes are as cold and steely as his hand. "All right, then," he says quietly, as if making a decision. "One more casualty of the worm attack—I knew the assistants wouldn't last. They never do." He dips a hand into his coat and comes back with a curved sort of dagger. 

Instinct drives into Sasha like a freight train and she pushes herself forward, her elbow hitting Elias straight in the throat. 

The fight is a blur, and Sasha doesn't remember most of it—she isn't sure she _wants_ to remember. All she knows is that at some point, she gets her hand on the knife. And that when it is done, Elias lies dead next to her, his own knife buried hilt-deep in his chest.

They all live to the end. She can't help but be relieved about that; they all live to the end. She explains it to the others outside the quarantine tents, when Tim is out— _He tried to kill me,_ she says, _he wouldn't push the button on the fire suppression system, h-he tried to stop me doing it… I think he was trying to kill you all, too._ They all look horrified, Jon particularly, but they believe her—Martin's leaning forward to hug her, and then Tim, careful around his bandaged wounds, and Jon's shaking hand lands on her shoulder. And despite the horribleness of it all, of all of it—Sasha just _killed her boss_ so he wouldn't kill all of them—she really thinks from here on out, it all might be okay. 

**2\. daisy**

Daisy shoots Elias in his office. Three efficient shots to the chest. Just like Gertrude, Jon thinks, dizzy and delirious on his feet. Ironic that it ends this way. 

There's a moment after it's done, when Daisy still has the gun in her hand and the bloodlust thick in her eyes, where Jon thinks she's going to kill him next. (Martin must think so, too, because he pushes towards Jon like he's going to step in front of him, and there's an odd moment of them shoving at each other so Jon can get him out of the way.) But then Daisy puts the gun down. "Stay away from us," she says, voice cold, and then she shoves her way out of the office. Basira lingers, long enough to say, "Jon, I-I'm sorry." And then she's going for the door after Daisy. 

Martin makes them all tea, after. Down in the Archives again, Melanie looking shell-shocked at Sasha's old desk, and Jon at Martin's. Tim helps Jon clean up and bandage the wound on his neck, not meeting his eyes the whole time, and Martin helps rebandage his hand. After a while, Tim says, "I think we can quit now," with a hollow little laugh. He says, "I _quit,_ " with deep relish and relief.

"Tim," Jon says, his voice breaking, "I… I'm so sorry. I'm _so_ sorry." He looks at Martin and says, "B-both of you. All of you, I…" He tries to squeeze Martin's hand and winces immediately at the strain to the burn; Martin, cupping Jon's bandaged hand gently in both of his, shakes his head a little as if to say _Don't try_ and _it's okay_ all at once. 

"These _aren't_ the new job challenges I expected," Melanie says, her voice rasping, tapping her nails against her mug. She offers a little gallows-humor laugh of her own. 

"Elias killed Jurgen Leitner," says Jon, and then he remembers that they know that already. "And Gertrude. I-I don't think he was on our side. I think he wanted to… he would've killed us, I think. If he had to."

"You _think?_ " says Melanie. Martin says, "Jon, it's okay," and pats his wrist instead of his hand. 

Tim looks at Jon with dark eyes. They're the same eyes he's been turning on Jon for months now, dark with anger—and Jon knows he deserved it—but they're tinged with a sadness now. They're wet, like he's on the verge of tears. "Y-y-you said Sasha's been dead for almost a year," he says quietly, and Jon hears Martin take a long, shaky breath. "What… what _happened,_ Jon?" 

There's no blame there, incredibly (even though Jon probably deserves it), no accusation, like… like Tim really does just want to know what happened. Jon looks at Martin and Melanie, and he knows they want to know, too. 

He tells them. All of them, sitting down in the office with little flecks of Elias's blood on their shirts, he tells them all of it. 

**3\. melanie**

Melanie makes the decision when she finds Martin on the floor of the Archives, among a pile of ashes, Jon's web lighter at his feet. He looks horrible, tears streaked down his face, shaking and shaking; he's not crying, but only just barely. Melanie knows that look. She's _seen_ that look, in the mirror of the bathroom upstairs, after Elias… 

She grabs Martin's hand and squeezes it, shakily; she says, "He needs to _die,_ " and Martin doesn't argue. So Melanie finds her knife, in the top drawer of her desk. She squeezes Martin's hand again and she leaves him in the Archives, and she goes upstairs. She finds Elias in his office and she locks the door. She doesn't think he knows about the things she took from his office, but she doesn't care. She doesn't _care._

Elias says, "Ms. King, I thought we'd sorted out all these assassination attempts," and she doesn't listen. He opens his mouth, ready to say more about her father, push more horrible things in her head, and she doesn't let him. She shuts him up. She stabs him in the throat, and she thinks of her father while she does it. Thinks of the performance review, the things he put in her head. She hates him. She hates him for everything he's done to them.

Two days later, Jon and Basira and Tim come back, tired with singed clothes and a few burns on their hands, and Melanie and Martin meet them at the door. Martin hugs Jon and Tim and Melanie hugs Basira, and she lets herself revel in the fact that they've at least made it out all right. (Seven months later, a coffin is delivered to the Archives, and they learn that Daisy didn't die, either.)

Three weeks later, Melanie wakes up with her leg burning with pain. Wakes up out of a furious nightmare with fury coursing through her, and she's pushing off the covers and pushing towards the door, her hand going for her dad's pocket knife where she keeps it on her bedside table, because she wants to hurt someone, she wants to _hurt_ someone, she wants to hurt _him,_ to kill him. 

And then she remembers Elias is dead. And then she stops. Sags to the floor, leaning against her bed, and bursts into tears, because she doesn't understand this, she doesn't understand where it's coming from or why it's here or why it won't go away. Sometimes the anger feels good, feels safe and comforting and validating and _right._ But sometimes… sometimes it just feels wrong. 

Shot by a ghost. She was shot by a ghost in India and the doctors… the doctors _couldn't find the bullet._

She calls Jon. At 3 a.m., she calls Jon, and he actually picks up. "Jon," she says, her voice shaking, and she tries to think about the times when Jon listened, when Jon helped her. "Jon, I… I think I need your help."

**4\. tim**

After it's all over, Tim's still trapped. They go and destroy a ritual, building collapses _on top of his goddamn boss_ because his boss has a hold of the detonator (because his boss looks him in the eye and says, _I won't lose you, too_ , and then uses his creepy fucking magic eye powers to _make Tim leave_ ), Martin and Melanie get tormented by Elias and lose, and he is _still trapped_. 

He thought it would be over by now. He thought he would be dead. And instead—instead, where is he? Daisy's dead. Jon's in a coma, most of the way fucking dead, except he's not. Basira's deep in grief, Melanie is furious as hell and Martin is traumatized, tortured, because their plan didn't work, and now Jon is mostly dead. And Tim's not sure what he's supposed to do with all of it. 

Basira and Melanie think they should kill Elias. Melanie is the most vocal about it, but Basira agrees. Martin keeps saying they can't, his voice hollow and shaking, and Tim doesn't know _why,_ because he's heard from Melanie what Elias did to him, what he was like after. (Martin isn't himself. Martin is devastated about what happened to Jon; Tim saw it when they got back and had to tell him, the way he crumpled, the way he fell apart. Tim hugs Martin, when they're alone, and tells him he's sorry, that he's here for him, that they'll be here for each other, from here on out, and Martin nods, unable to really speak and he hugs Tim back. And Tim means it. He really does.) 

Martin says no to killing Elias, but Basira and Melanie say yes. Tim makes his own decision. 

He goes to Elias's office late at night, when Rosie isn't there. He takes Jon's axe. Elias doesn't look surprised to see him. "Tim," he says. "I thought you'd come like this."

" _Watched_ me come, huh?" says Tim, lugging the axe up and holding it at attention. "Creepy Watcher powers? Ready to gloat about how you won?"

"I don't see how I've _won,_ with my Archivist out of commission," says Elias. 

"Oh, _bullshit._ Martin told me, you know, about your little monologue in Jon's hospital room," Tim spits. "You're _happy_ he's like this. You planned this! You _let_ this happen, just like you let that… th-that _thing_ kill Sasha."

"It isn't my job to interfere…" Elias begins.

" _Fuck you!_ Fuck your plans, and fuck your 'not interfering.' You've been letting this happen for months. You let Sasha and Daisy die. You let Jon… blow up in that accident, y-you framed him for murder, you let him be kidnapped… you let Martin and me wander around in those fucking hallways for _two days._ And you tortured him and Melanie both before you blew up their plan…"

"And what? You expected me to stand by and let myself be arrested?" Elias says, amused. 

Tim doesn't take the bait. He paces, axe balanced on his shoulder. "I've been thinking, you know," he says. "I've been angry at Jon all this time. And I've been angry at you, don't get me wrong, but I think… I've been putting this in the wrong place." He turns towards Elias, fingers tightening around the handle. "I've gotten revenge for Danny, now," he says quietly. "That's over. But you know what's left?"

"You won't kill me, Tim," says Elias, but Tim sees something there—a flash of fear in his eyes. He _Knows._ "You won't risk the lives of your coworkers—y-you know they'll be hurt if I…"

"I don't think so," says Tim. "See, I think you were bluffing. I think you didn't want Daisy to put a bullet through your skull. Or for Melanie to poison you. And _I_ think you're banking an awful lot on the idea that we won't call that bluff."

Elias's mouth hangs open. He says, "Tim," warningly. "Tim, tread carefully—I can show you e-exactly what happened to your brother, to Sasha—I will push the image so far into your brain that you will…"

The images push at the edge of Tim's mind—of Danny's screaming face, of Sasha's. He doesn't let it go farther. He lets out a furious shout and brings the axe down in one fluid motion. And then Elias is silent. 

After it's over, Tim goes to the hospital. Sits by Jon's bed and listens to the silence of all of it—no machines, no breathing. Jon should be dead, but he isn't. He isn't. 

Tim sighs, puts his hand over Jon's limp one. "I don't forgive you, boss," he says. "But I…" He swallows hard, looks down at his feet. "It's over now," he says. "He's dead, he can't hurt us anymore. None of us." He thinks of Sasha, thinks of a face he can't remember; thinks, _I got him for you, Sash. I'm sorry I was so late._ Thinks that he did it for Martin, too, for Jon, for Melanie, for him. All of them. 

Tim says, "We… we'll be here when you wake up, boss. We'll wait. And when you do… we'll talk. We'll figure it out. You self-sacrificing idiot—I have to yell at you for what you did back there. I can't _believe_ you did that." 

He squeezes Jon's limp hand before he gets up and leaves. Six months later, Georgie Barker calls him and Martin back to the hospital because Jon has woken up. 

**5\. martin**

Martin kills Elias. Knife through his ribs at the top of the Panopticon, and it really is that easy. He can save the world; he can _finally_ save the world. He puts the knife Peter gives him through Elias's ribs and Jonah Magnus dies two hundred years later at the top of the Panopticon. 

Martin refuses to help Peter, after it's over, because he was never doing this for Peter. He tells him that; he says, "I only pretended to work with you to keep the others safe." He says, "I killed Elias for _me,_ not for you." He says, "I won't help you. I don't care what you're trying to do."

Peter gets angry. Of course he does. He gets angry and he tries to push Martin into the Lonely. Martin resists, as best he can, and it won't last long, he can tell, but it's something—he is in the Beholding's place of power, and he has just made a move in the game; the Beholding is fond of him now. Still, he is undeniably touched by the Lonely, and the Lonely could take him, too; he can feel the touches of fog at the edge of the tower, coiling around his ankles and swirling around his eyes. It's a stand-off that won't last, Martin can tell, and just as it's about to fall apart, Jon shows up. Running up the stairs to the tower, his eyes hard and frantic, but he's here, he's alive, the Not-Sasha didn't get him, he's _all right._

Jon takes Peter's statement, and Peter resists and is torn apart. Martin sits on the floor of the tower and lets the fog fade away, until Jon is finished and he crosses the room and hugs Martin, hard, his arms tight around Martin's shoulders as he mumbles, "I thought—I-I thought I was going to lose you, he said you weren't coming back." Martin sags into the embrace, weightless, and then it dawns on him—he's hugging Jon, Jon is _here,_ Jon is hugging him and it's allowed, and Martin isn't alone and Jon is _alive,_ he's alive, he's alive—and Martin clutches him back, clutches at his jacket, and lets himself burst into tears, his face pressed into Jon's shoulder. 

Jon rubs his back—small, shaky, tentative circles—and murmurs, "It's okay, it's okay," and he sounds like he might cry, too. He holds onto Martin until Martin's done, there at the top of the tower. He holds Martin's hand as they walk down to the bottom. 

Later, in Scotland, they open the box of statements from Basira and Jon's tape recorder explodes in static. He gets that look in his eyes, that Martin has learned to mean he's Knowing something, and he says, his tone faint, "There was supposed to be another statement in this box." 

It all comes spilling out then: Elias's— _Jonah's_ —plan to end the world, how he was going to use Jon, how he _has_ used Jon. Jon is nearly in tears by the end, his hands shaking where they're clenched around Martin's, and he's saying, "I won't do it, I won't do it, Martin, I _swear,_ " and Martin shakes his head. Leans forward to clamp his arms around Jon, who sags into him like he needs it; presses kisses to the top of Jon's head and tries to steady himself, his mind racing. The end of the world. If he hadn't killed Elias, Elias would've _ended the world._

"You did it, Martin," Jon says, voice rasping. He leans his face into the side of Martin's neck and says, "You did it, Martin, you—you _saved the world._ "

Martin wants to argue, wants to say it wasn't just him, and he does a little, but Jon keeps telling him that it was him, he saved the world, and the longer he thinks on it, Martin thinks maybe he really did. That his mantra, his hope that he could save the world, at the top of that Panopticon, it was all true. Maybe he _did_ save the world. 

Sitting here, in the relief of the world having not ended, with Jon all right and alive and Elias _dead_ —dead because of _him_ —Martin thinks maybe they will really all be okay. 

**6\. basira**

After the world ends, Basira doesn't wait. She _can't._ There's a part of her that wants to keep following Daisy—she has to, she can't just keep sitting here when she _promised_ —but then she looks out the window, and she sees the tower—the eye—and she knows he is up there, that fucking bastard, and she isn't sure if Elias has ended the world—she'd put money on the fact that Jon has done this, actually—but she expects he's had his role in this all, and he should have died a long time ago. And she's not about to sit here and let _him_ sit up there enjoying himself, not after everything she's done. 

Basira takes her gun and goes. She'll find Daisy, she'll keep her promise, but before that… she's ending this first. She is killing Jonah Magnus. One of them should have done it a long time ago. 

She can't find a way into the Panopticon, not from the outside, but she finds Georgie and Melanie instead. Georgie and Melanie and a series of other survivors. They're happy enough to see her, Melanie happier still to show her the way up the steps into the Panopticon. "Kill that fucking bastard," she tells her. "It's been too long he's been able to go on like this. I wish… well, one of us should have done it a long time ago."

Basira nods with stiff agreement. "You… you could come with me," she says. "If you wanted to." She's missed Melanie, through all this; she was all Basira had, after the Unknowing, when Martin started to pull away, and they haven't really been close since everything started (the Flesh and Jon and Daisy and… the surgery), and especially since Melanie quit, and it's just… Basira's missed her. They could do this together.

"No, I can't," Melanie says, mouth set in a grim line. "I can't… I can't leave Georgie and the others. And besides, I'm… I'm out of this. I _can't_ get pulled back in." She finds Basira's arm, squeezes it reassuringly. "Take him down, though, okay? For… for all of us. Make him pay."

"I… I will," says Basira. She finds Melanie's arm and squeezes back. And then she's climbing the tower alone, pushing past the things that guard the stairs—they don't touch her, not at all—clutching her gun in both hands. 

Rosie argues with her a little, at the top of the tower, but eventually she lets Basira past, and Basira pushes into the throne room. Jonah is waiting for her, smirking at her with those stony steel eyes, and Basira's done with it immediately. She lifts her gun to point at him, just as he says, "Hello, Detective. Hadn't thought I'd be seeing you quite so soon." 

"Shut up," says Basira. 

"Forgotten your promise to Daisy already? She's _waiting_ on you, you know; she'd hoped that you wouldn't fail her _this_ time," says Elias, smirking and smirking. 

"Shut _up,_ " Basira snarls. 

"And what would you do about it? Shoot me? You haven't had the courage to do that all this time."

"Should've done it a long time ago." Basira cocks her gun, attention laser-focused. "Even if it wouldn't have saved the world, it would've been worth it, to see you dead. After everything you've done…"

"Even if it wouldn't have saved the world?" Elias inclines his head, confused. "Tell me, Detective, who do you think _made_ the world this way? Do you think it was the Archivist?"

Basira says nothing. Jonah Magnus laughs. "You think he could have done this, on his own? Of his own will? No, Detective, he was merely a conduit. A pawn in _my_ plan, as the rest of you were. He was the catalyst, but _I_ was the orchestrator."

Basira chews at her lower lip, calculating. Somewhere between surprised and expectant, some part of her thinking this makes sense, that Jon wouldn't end the world even at his worst. "You sound proud," she says coolly. 

"Why shouldn't I be?" Elias motions to the windows, the eye that oversees all. "This is _my_ world, of my making. I wouldn't want Jon taking credit where it isn't due. If we want to be honest, Detective, we _all_ made this world together, all of us—all of you played your part. But the world is mine. Let us not make a mistake about that."

Basira makes her decision. Lifts her gun, her finger ghosting over the trigger. Elias laughs when he sees it. "Surely, Detective, you don't think you can kill me. _Me,_ the Beholding's chosen one, the king of a ruined world. Surely you don't think the solution is that simple. The rules have changed, that's true, but I think you'll find, Ms. Hussain, that I am invin—"

Basira shoots him then, mid-sentence, right between the eyes. No hesitating; she's hesitated too long. (She tells herself she won't hesitate next time.) She shoots, and Jonah Magnus dies, and the world shakes. And the Watcher turns its gaze on her. Basira can feel it, coursing through her from her head to her toes, and she, after all this time, is not afraid. 

She looks out the window, when it's all over, and she sees the world put back to normal. It's all gone, like it never even happened; the death of Jonah Magnus turned it back. 

Basira puts her gun away and walks to the bottom of the tower, ready to see what she will find on the other side. 

  
  


**7\. georgie**

Georgie says she wants no part of it. That she doesn't want to be involved, that she'll be all right as long as she has Melanie and they're safe in the tunnel. 

But Melanie dies, in the end. Melanie and Basira and Martin and Jon, all of them, when the Eye and Jonah Magnus turn on them. Melanie dies, crumpled in Georgie's arms, and then Jon, and no matter how long Georgie spends trying to wake them up, it doesn't work, she's never given herself over fully to the End, and it doesn't work, it _doesn't work._

The End comes in, then. Flows in dark and murky, filling her. And she knows what she has to do. 

She goes to the top of the tower. She knows the way; she isn't afraid, doesn't worry about what she'll have to face to get there. Jonah Magnus can't touch her, can't breach the boundaries of the End. Not when it is the one thing he fears. 

Jonah Magnus is waiting. He Watches her come in. "Georgina Barker," he says, when she enters.

"You saw me coming," she says, blankly. She can't feel anything anymore; there's nothing left to feel. She's lost it all. 

"No. I haven't been able to See you since the end of the world. I haven't watched you close enough, I think. I only paid attention when the Archivist was with you." He sniffs, as if dismissive. "A mistake, I think. Considering your work of detaching Ms. King from the Institute. I count myself lucky you didn't manage to detach Jon as well."

"I didn't get Melanie out," she says, and the name is like ash in her mouth. (Melanie, _god,_ Melanie, _Melanie,_ she's gone, Georgie's lost her, and she thinks she would be falling apart if there was any of her left.) "She got herself out. It was all her."

"If you say so," Jonah Magnus says, idly, studying his nails as if this all is inconsequential. "I wonder why you've come, then, Ms. Barker—I suppose to air your grievances, about Jon and Ms. King." He looks up at her, and there is clear smugness even under this farce of an… an _apology,_ or whatever this is meant to be. "I _am_ sorry, Ms. Barker. They weren't meant to be harmed, but, alas… they resisted. I couldn't let that go ignored."

"You _killed_ them," says Georgie, and her voice booms with what should be grief, anger, _fury._ Her eyes sting with what should be tears. "They're _gone._ You've destroyed _all_ of it—the world, the _whole world._ And them… you, y-you just, you _took them._ " _Melanie,_ and _Jon,_ and Martin and Basira and the others, and her _cat_ , she _can't,_ she can't… 

"Yes, I did. So you have come to air your grievances, then, as I thought. You think it will have any effect? You've seen, Ms. Barker, the power that I have." He is smiling, now, with no false sympathies, nothing but cold smugness, because he thinks he's _won._

"No," Georgie says, and she steps forward, draws closer to the foot of the throne. "No, you know why I'm here. You _Know_."

She watches his eyes, his cold, grey eyes that do not belong in this body, and she sees it, the moment when he realizes. The moment the fear begins to set in. "No," he says, slowly, horrified. "No, you—no. That's impossible."

"Come now, Jonah," says Georgie, speaking with the weight of _years,_ the weight of a power this man has evaded for so long. "You've always Known the End would come for you eventually."

"No," Jonah says, desperate, pushing himself back against his throne as Georgie approaches. "This is impossible, you—I hold _dominion_ over you, over _all_ the powers, I—the Eye _rules through me_."

"Not anymore," Georgie says, and her voice is descended, they're hardly even her words at this point. "We all answer to the End eventually. Even in this new world. You Know this. You've always Known." 

"No," Jonah says, still begging, pleading. "No, you can't do this, you—you _can't touch me! You can't touch me anymore,_ you—" 

He's cut off, abruptly, with Georgie's hand over his mouth. She smiles at him, as cruelly as he has smiled as everyone he has ever killed. (So many, so many people through the years, he always smiled—he smiled as he sent down the wave that killed Melanie and Jon.) She smiles, and she presses her hand over his mouth, and she says the words. Or the End says them for her. At this point, it is genuinely hard to tell. 

And so Jonah Magnus Ends. And the world shakes. The world shakes and changes and _turns,_ and Georgie falls to her knees. And she feels it all flood through her, all of it coming back—every single emotion she lost when the End came back, when she opened her eyes and saw them all dead—all of it, love and hope and grief and anger, all of it, and _fear_ —fear she has not felt in almost fifteen years. It all comes back. 

Georgie shuts her eyes. She shuts her eyes, and when she opens them, she is at the base of the tower, in the tunnels again. And Melanie is leaning over her. Melanie is leaning over her—Melanie is _alive,_ alive and breathing, with her hand cupping Georgie's cheek, and Jon is behind her, his hand on Georgie's wrist taking her pulse, and Martin and Basira past them, and the others, Laverne and Celia and Arun, past them, and they're all here, they're all alive, they're all _alive._

Melanie's hand is cool on her cheek, and her voice shakes when she says, "Honey?" A tear drips down Georgie's cheek; Melanie wipes it away. Past her, in a shaking voice with his hand gentle on her wrist, Jon says, "Georgie?"

"You're _alive,_ " Georgie chokes out. She jerks up and it feels like coming back to life, like Frankenstein's monster waking up again. She sits up, her arms coming around Melanie, and she kisses her, kisses her jubilantly on the mouth first and then all over her face, and she is laughing and crying all at once. Melanie's laughing, too, stroking her thumb over Georgie's cheek, over Georgie's hair, and hugging her back just as tight, and saying, "Georgie—hon, Georgie, it's normal again, it's back, it's all normal, it's _back._ " 

Georgie keeps laughing and doesn't stop, pressing kiss after sloppy kiss all over Melanie's face. And then she's letting go of Melanie and going to Jon, throwing her arms around him, hugging him so hard he murmurs a protest about already not having the right number of ribs. (What the hell does _that_ mean?) And then she's hugging all the rest of them, every single one of them, filled to the brim with uncontrollable joy because they're _alive,_ she'd lost them all and now they are _alive again,_ the world's back to normal and Jonah Magnus is dead, but here they are, they're all alive, and Georgie can feel it all again. 

"Jonah Magnus is dead," she tells them, eventually. 

" _Seriously?_ " Martin says, incredulous, from where he is leaning on Jon. "How? W-we thought he couldn't be killed."

"The End came for him," Georgie says. 

Apparently, that is all she needs to say, because Jon and Martin break out into huge twin smiles, and Basira collapses into a chair with relief, and Melanie winds her arms around Georgie from behind and kisses all over the side of her face, says, "Babe, this might be morbid, but that's the sexiest thing you've ever done," and Georgie can't stop laughing. 

They leave the tunnels a few minutes later, go out into the changed world to see what they can make of it. Georgie knows where she is going first; she needs to find her cat. 

**8\. jon**

Jon kills Jonah Magnus, finally. At the end of their endless journey, at the top of the tower where all are Watched, he turns the Eye's gaze on Jonah. And it works. He dies. He's gone, he's dead, it's done. The revenge quest he gave up picked back up again, the revenge he had to take for the sake of all of them. It's _done._

After, he turns the world back. It's a simple ritual, it comes to him, unbidden, as soon as Jonah is gone. (Behind his eyelids, Jon sees spider webs, but he can't bring himself to worry. Not when the entire world is at stake.) He says the words, and Martin helps, says the words with him at the top of the tower, holding onto his hand as the world shifts and changes and pulses around them. Winds whipping and threatening to push them apart, but Jon doesn't let it, clutches at Martin's hand until it's all over. His anchor, his partner, his assistant. They're together at the end and the beginning. It all comes down to this. 

(Martin pushes forward when it's all over, pushes forward and kisses him, hands cupping his face, laughing into his mouth with a joyous glee. The triumphant end-of-a-movie kiss. Jon laughs and kisses him back and lets himself be taken over by relief, joy of his own, that it's all over now.)

After. After, he and Martin descend from the tower, a disoriented Rosie coming with them. After, Georgie and Melanie meet them at the edge of the Panopticon, laughing with giddy relief. (And Lynne Hammond remembers her name, and Arun has hymns waiting, and the unnamed woman tells the other cultists her name, her voice trembling.) After, Basira reappears, exhausted and trembling but alive and whole. After, they go through the tunnels back to the Archives and set it alight, and Jon feels the Eye leaving him like a gradual exhale. The last thing he Knows is that it won't hurt him, is that he's going to survive, that he is fully human and he is going to be able to _live._

After, they go back to Scotland, to the house that is just a house again. She would've wanted you to have it, Basira says, of Daisy. Just going to sit empty otherwise, so go on, it's yours. They drive up this time, take their time, enjoy it, until they finally get home, and then they sleep. They spend a full week in bed. 

After. After, there is tea, and books, and gardening, and Martin's notebooks, and snow, and rain, and long, lazy afternoons in the sun. They cry, and they talk about their trauma, and they find therapists in the village, and they begin to heal. They nurse their scars. But they are happy, too—they cook, and go on long walks, and sleep in late, and go to bed early, and Georgie and Melanie come to visit (and bring the Admiral), and they take the train back to London, sometimes, or Edinburgh or Inverness or the ocean, and a year or two later, Jon buys two rings at a secondhand shop. 

After it all, they get a cat, a timid little thing from a shelter, and spend three days trying to get it used to their home before she settles, starts climbing into their bed in the middle of the night and scaring the living hell out of them. After it all, they make a home, together. 

And they are _happy._ Jon remembers this, holds onto it as the years go on and on: finally, finally, they are happy. 

**Author's Note:**

> so a note on the georgie scenario: that arose out of me speculating about georgie killing jonah bc she's end aligned and then going "well that might be less satisfying than one of the others but hey it'd be cool if she was taking revenge for melanie and jon" and then my brain was like what if it was after jonah killed them. so i ran with that. 
> 
> i am sorry sasha isn't in more of this, as tempting as it was to just bring her back to life in every scenario. you are welcome to imagine that she (and tim in the ones he doesn't survive) are brought back to life somehow after the end. it's what i'll probably do. 
> 
> i wrote this entire thing in a frenzy this afternoon and it was honestly a lot of fun. (i just uh really hate jonah magnus lol.) thank you for reading!! hit me up on tumblr @ghostbustermelanieking


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